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Aug 20, 2011

Carolyn rated it:

"Tiger Tiger","Margaux Fragoso"
"This is a true,disturbing account of a child's 15 year long relationship with a pedophile.7 year old Margaux meets 51 year old Peter when she asks to play with him at a swimming pool.Peter is a pedophile with several counts of child molestation in his past.He enchants the young girl with his houseful of budgies, reptiles, hamsters, rabbits, fish and a big friendly dog. He enjoys playing children's games, and until his suicide at age More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 30, 2011

Matilda rated it:

This was a tough read. Both because of the subject matter and because of the writing style. Initially, in the first part of the book, I found her writing to be difficult to believe and, therefore, difficult to get into. I am one of those people who has problems with the current trend in memoirs to be told in pages of elegant dialogue and lengthy descriptions of settings that cannot possibly be remembered. I was prepared for this by a well-written review I read on NPR, however. There were some ob More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Sep 01, 2011

Jeni rated it:

I began reading this book on the subway home one evening; continued reading and finished it late that same night, basically in one sitting. This is one of the most compelling and harrowing memoirs I have encountered. I had to keep reading, turning the pages. It was difficult, stomach-churning to read, but it felt so urgent and imperative to do so. This story needs to exist.

This is a revised Lolita story, told from the point of the view of the victim: it explains how an 8 year girl wi More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Nov 05, 2011

Eurik rated it:

A depressing read. Not easy to digest. The supposedly main storyline of the girls (author's) relationship with a paedophile is somewhat scattered and fogged over her generally difficult childhood (crazy mother, distant, abusive father).

---spoilers---

I was kind of disappointed that the book remained inconclusive. She narrates their shared history as a story of abuse and pseudo-consensual intimacy, however her need to return to her abuser - and doing so willingly - is clear More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 27, 2011

Michelle rated it:

Beautifully written, but very, very sad. Though it is disturbing, it is valuable in that people can see how such abuse comes about and how children are drawn into dangerous relationships. Though it's about child abuse, predators of all types manipulate and brainwash their victims and this book gives a glimpse into this strange psychological phenomenon.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2012

Kelly rated it:

Despite being horrified, revolted, and disturbed by this book, I couldn't put it down. The author spares no details in describing her sexual abuse (let's not call it molestation; that's too pretty of a word) at the hands of a predator from the age of 7 to 22. The love/hate relationship she has with him along with her conflicting desires to destroy him and save him might be hard for some to fathom. Margaux clearly shows how a predator/pedaphile grooms and manipulates his victims and convinces the More...

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Dec 11, 2011

Sam rated it:

The back of this memoir states that it is a book about a relationship between a fifty-one year old man and a seven year old girl. And it's controversial because it is about just that, a relationship. A socially unacceptable, manipulative, controlling relationship, but a relationship nonetheless and Fragoso writes about it honestly, resisting the temptation to paint herself sympathetically to appeal to readers.

Margaux is seven when she meets Peter at a swimming pool - she sees him pla More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2011

Kate rated it:

A grand jury report is inadvertently released in Pennsylvania, America reads the phrase "rhythmic slapping sounds" and is forced to visualize the actual rape of a child, and in the Sandusky/Penn State scandal, public consciousness changes. "Molestation" sounds so much better than "anal rape," after all. Easier to take, easier to imagine as something lesser.

A great author, who confesses upfront that he wants to have sex with little girls, writes the ultimat More...

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Sep 14, 2011

Tracie rated it:

Margaux Fragoso is a woman with a story.

She grew up being molested - and, ultimately, falling in love, with a family friend who is fifty some years older than she is. The book goes into great detail, which makes you believe that some of it must be fabricated, because of the sheer impossibility of someone remembering conversations that took place when they were eight years old. I don't doubt the validity of this book, but some holes were filled in, that much is true.

Fragoso i More...

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Sep 11, 2011

Jen added it

This is a very difficult book to give a star rating to. On the one hand, it was absolutely compelling and I read it in a single sitting. On the other hand, the subject matter is frankly disturbing and I would feel wrong about giving it five stars. So I'm going to leave this one star-less.

This is a memoir (the first memoir I have ever finished) which details a woman's memories of growing up in the thrall of a pedophile. A friend's husband recommended this to me, as it was required rea More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 23, 2011

Judith rated it:

This is a memoir by a woman who was sexually molested and raped by an older man who was a "friend of the family". At the tender age of 8, the author met Peter ( the pedophile) who was 51. For the next 14 years, until he committed suicide at the age of 66, they were together on an almost daily basis, and for most of that time, he was sexually molesting her. You may think you've heard/read enough about child abuse by now. But this book has a unique perspective.

The auth More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 11, 2011

Betty rated it:

I rated this five stars because I think it's an important book and because I liked the way Fragoso was able to evoke the mood of her life in the way that she did. I can't say that I enjoyed reading it and I would hesitate to recommend it because it is incredibly graphic and extremely disturbing. I have read other reviews where people denounce her for writing it the way that she did. One reviewer said something to the effect of "Her target audience is pedophiles" as though she put in More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 24, 2011

Julie rated it:

This is such a hard book to describe or review. I literally felt sick to my stomach the entire book and every time I got done reading a bit I just felt so depressed. You wonder to yourself why I kept reading it? Well, I wanted to see how it finally ended. I wanted to read how she moved on from that experience, and eventually had a daughter of her own. THAT really didn't happen...it was over and he was gone and that was that. What a horrible thing for Margaux to go through. I felt so badly for he More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 23, 2011

Topher rated it:

I'm a terrible book reviewer: not only is this copy atrociously late, but I'd also got the impression that the story in Tiger, Tiger, a memoir by Margaux Fragoso, somehow pertained to tigers. It doesn't.

A quick scan down the back cover revealed it's true content:

"I still think about Peter, the man I loved most in the world, all the time ... We were friends, soul mates and lovers. I was seven. He was fifty-one. They were the happiest days of my life."

It's f More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Apr 25, 2011

C.E. rated it:

I couldn't put this book down. Margaux chronicles the true story of her secret 14-year relationship with a paedophile old enough to be her grandfather using the most poetic, poignant and honest prose I have ever read, and giving the reader a harrowing and yet human insight into the mind of both a paedophile and his innocent victim. It reads like a beautifully written novel and yet sadly it is only too real.
Emotionally and physically abused by her overworked alcoholic father and neglected b More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Apr 24, 2011

Louise rated it:

Margaux Fragoso had a sexual relationship for 15 years with a pedophile. She was only 7-years-old when she first met Peter Curran. Margaux says she was: “...Peter’s religion”. He had 22 photo albums full of pictures of Margaux.

Margaux and her mother, Sandie, began visiting Peter at his home every Monday and Friday after meeting him at the community pool. Margaux was completely taken with the large number of pets Peter kept, everything from a dog to a small alligator. Visiting Pe More...

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Apr 11, 2011

Liz rated it:

Hmmm.....where to start? Let me just say that it was a very hard book to get through, very disturbing, to the point that I was almost unable to read it. I like the writing style of the author Margaux Fragoso, but the subject matter and the events were at times harsh, no matter how poetically expressed. I think that pedophilia does need to be discussed, and awareness raised, as the author states in her afterword, but it is still a sensitive topic. Like she pointed out, there is the misconception More...

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Apr 04, 2011

Sofia rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 04, 2011

Marianne rated it:

This was one of those books that i just had to finish. I needed to know what happened to the author. Despite its difficult subject matter, sexual abuse on a child, this book is beautifully written. You really get to know the author deep down: her insecurities, her pain, her terrible childhood and the man that saved her from her mentally ill and alcoholic parents yet took away her childhood and destroyed what she could have been. You are torn when you read this: the author's homelife is terrible More...

2 comments like

Apr 02, 2011

Karen rated it:

This is a memoir written by a woman who continued a relationship from the age of 8 with a pedophile until he died by suicide when she was in her 20's. I read this book because the reviews of it were so intriguing. No doubt this book is graphic and disturbing. Horribly so. But what I appreciated about this book were the fascinating the complex family dynamics that explain in someways why the young girl is vulnerable to the affections of an older man and the courage the author displays in admi More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 31, 2011

Gloria rated it:

This disturbing memoir totally shakes up any preconceived notions of what a child molester is like. So often, a molester is depicted as a stranger who is really weird or evil. Here the molester is a friend, a protector, a fill-in father, and more. This is a sexually graphic recounting of 14 yrs of abuse. It is educational in a sense, since you come to see how some behaviors influence others such as abuse experienced in one generation repeats itself in the next. While all the people included in t More...

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Mar 31, 2011

Ashleyruth23 rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 25, 2011

Danielle rated it:

"Love is what you call a phantom pain. The poets write of it, our great art represents it, it inspires our musicians, but it does not really exist." He took a long drag from his cigarette. "Like an ulcer you think you have but the surgeon opens you up and finds nothing there. It is a chemical reaction, Keesy. Hormones. People die for it, but no one has ever proven it exists." (p. 130-131)

The summer she was seven, Margaux Fragoso met 51-year-old Peter Curran More...

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Mar 13, 2011

Alina added it

The usual questions arise with childhood abuse stories. How much of this is true? How can she remember exactly what she said and thought when she was seven? Etc etc. Then we feel guilt for doubting such horrors and feel compelled to hit the five-stars because it's so INTENSE! So disturbing! That means it's good! Quite evident judging by the rave reviews here.

This is just shocking moment after shocking moment with little else to offer. This has been done countless times and the More...

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Mar 10, 2011

Chris rated it:

This is not a fun read. It is about a 7-year old girl who finds herself in a sexual relationship with a man old enough to be her grandfather. The book chronicles this relationship, which lasts over a decade. It is a memoir.

Some of the reviews that I saw of this book seemed to question the author's memories. There was a hint that children remember things differently from what actually happened. And while I doubt that everything happened exactly as written, I have no doubt that the crux More...

5 comments like

Mar 07, 2011

Paula rated it:

Fragoso lays herself bare in this raw, unsettling memoir of childhood corrupted. Raised in poverty by a hardworking but often unavailable father and a mother who's mentally unbalanced, young Margaux revels in the attention of 51 year-old Peter, a magical adult who seems to focus on her alone. His house is a wonderland of animals, and he has time to play imaginative games like "Danger Tiger." He zeroes in on what she enjoys, and lavishes praise. He never scolds her or makes her feel sel More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 08, 2011

Deborah rated it:

It's difficult to criticize a memoir like this. A part of you just wants to pat the author on the back for undertaking such a difficult task. People with stories like these need to tell them, if only to help others understand, or feel understood. But somewhere in the middle of this memoir I started to get disgusted, because I could no longer swallow the "stockholm syndrome" excuse I was being sold. This memoir is certainly about a fucked up relationship, but doesn't easily fit into the More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

May 03, 2011

Alexis rated it:

Disclosure- I was interested to read this book as my mom is a retired social worker who spent years counselling children who had been sexually abused. At first I really wanted my mom to read this book, but now I know that she has probably heard many similar stories over her years of working.

The book is a non-fiction retelling of the 15-year-relationship between Margaux and a pedophilic child molester. The relationship was basically sanctioned by her mother, and we're shown how Margau More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 09, 2011

Carmen rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 04, 2011

Beth rated it:

For its content and purpose I found this book fairly average. Both of the main figures, Margaux (the author) and Peter, were fairly unlikable. Margaux Fragoso doesn't spend much time building up her persona, so she comes off as a generic child in the first part of the book, only her relationship with Peter making her of any interest. In the later sections, she appears stupid for staying with her abuser when she is mature enough to process what has happened to her. Considering that she is willing More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)